You should join the Experimental 64 Player Ultra Game. Jay has switched to using the “xjhdexters-quad_flower” map since 2014 OCT.
New games are starting up all the time.
Are we still having fun on this map type? Time for a change yet?
Please check out some of the 64 player maps created in my mapeditor.
http://np2stats.dysp.info/mapviewer.php?mapidselect=110
http://np2stats.dysp.info/mapviewer.php?mapidselect=107
http://np2stats.dysp.info/mapviewer.php?mapidselect=101
If you want to make your own designs, please register and have it a go at http://np2stats.dysp.info/ .
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This map editor is cool. !
Any progress on a Toral Map?
I really think you should give a new design a go for a while Jay.
Not only is the current one getting just a tad old, but it is incredibly hard on players in the middle. I speak from experience.
Yep, we have a plan for a new map. I just need some time to load it up and test it. Perhaps later this week?
That’s great, Jay!
Sorry, I got totally swamped last week and this week is not looking super good either.
Any plans for a new map? It’s been almost a year with the same map and it would be interesting to change it up every now and then so that 64p games get more interesting
I’m taking the new game Blight to Pax Australia in three weeks and will be really rushed until then, but once that is out of the way I’m going to spend a little time on NP and I agree, a new map is needed!
Honestly, people have pretty much figured out this map; every game is pretty much the same. There are basically a few snowballing alliances, and towards the end players from each of the alliances form two giant coalitions that fight it out.
Hopefully you’ll have time to work on this soon.
I really do not know . . .
1 A
Jay said that Three Neighbors map 64L was too wide
1 B
That is why he choose Three Neighbors map 64D, which is the quad_flower being played now.
2
My next suggestion could be Three Neighbors map 64E, which maybe looks like a “pretzel”.
This is a variation of map 64D
3
I was slowly working on this spiral
Which I think is an unfair map.
I have made slow to little progress with spirals.
4
The three neighbors maps are based on the concept of fair distances ( 1D ) between neighbors.
I had another concept, which is based on fair defensive areas. ( 2D )
So if two neighbors are a little closer, then a third neighbor should be farther away. So there would be some push and pull between neighbor distances that would be balanced by fair defensive areas.
If there is some shrinkage in one area towards one neighbor, then there should be some expansion in other areas towards another neighbor. The hope is that with fair areas, there is a fair opportunity to scatter random stars.
Just thinking out loud, but I have made little progress with the math.
I have thought about structures found in nature. Spiral galaxies, trees and their branches, rivers meandering down mountains, joining branches in a watershed, etc. . . There often seems to be two or more forces at work to create the curves and branches.
I like maps to be fair. This is difficult to do.
The standard 8 player maps are random hex maps. Randomness is a different kind of unexpected fairness.
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What are the maximum dimensions?
It is possible that I mis-spoke here ?
I think Jay’s opinion was that on map 64L, most of the players were in the outer loops, and had less opportunity to interact with other players from other parts of the galaxy. Map 64D allowed more player interactions in the center, where there are four branches joining together instead of just three.
Yes, that is what he said. EDIT
In my opinion, 64L is better because it is more different from 64D, which has been in use for a long time.
I think that three branches in the center is actually good; when I am part of an alliance in the center, we get cramped due to two neighbors.
Of course, this is just my opinion; we won’t know until the maps are actually tried out.
hmmm . . . still needs more work ? or maybe . . . .IDK ?
some empires have two neighbors, some have nearly five . . . 
I could attempt to apply the fair defense area effect, and see what happens . . . ?
One problem with the equal neighbour maps is they are often not equal at the start because the random layout can completely isolate people or only give a player one neighbour.
Do you think we should come up with a new random map generator that works better for 64 players. (The current algorithm just makes a big blob)
We could divide the galaxy into a grid and populate each section with 4 player starts. This grid is 4x4 then further divided 4x4 but you might want to make the smaller grid 3x3 so that there are only 5 empty cells for every 4 player starts.
Do you think it would make a map with interesting gaps?
